Reunited
by hydref05
Summary: When Jack and the Doctor meet up again in Cardiff, the Doctor's shocked to find Jack alive and Jack isn't too pleased to see his former friend.
1. Chapter 1

**Reunited **by Sian

**Synopsis**: The Doctor is surprised, not to mention a little shocked, to see an old friend in Cardiff  
**Characters**: The Doctor (ten), Jack, Ianto, Martha   
**Episode/Spoilers**: Doctor Who - 2 x13 Doomsday & some series 3 spoilers. Torchwood - 1x07 Greeks Bearing Gifts.  
**Rating**: PG (some mild swearing & violence)  
**Notes**: I've been writing Jack/Ten fics all summer (had to update this one after Torchwood started) - this is the first I've posted, there will be more.

* * *

**Part One **

The TARDIS landed with a jolt that sent her occupants crashing to the floor. "You alright?" the Doctor shouted as he jumped to his feet and ran back to the console.

"Yeah. Bruised, sore but no broken bones this time," Martha replied. She stood up, dusted herself off and walked over to the Doctor. "Is she okay?"

"Oh you know," the Doctor replied as he shut down the controls and studied the monitor.

"No, that's why I'm asking."

"She's tired, needs a break and some t.l.c, that last trip took it out of her a bit," the Doctor fondly stroked the console and then turned his attention to his companion. "She needs a rest. Do you want to go and get something to eat?"

Martha nodded and put her jacket on. "Where are we?"

"Earth - Cardiff to be exact, April 2009."

"Ah, Earth - the TARDIS's favourite planet."

"Indeed," the Doctor agreed. "What do you fancy? Chips? Pizza? Chinese? Indian?"

"Indian," Martha decided. "So she'll be okay then?"

"After a rest and some careful repairs, she'll be good as new. Well, I say new, I mean good as last week. She's not as young as she was you know."

Martha followed the Doctor outside and closed the TARDIS door behind her. "So how old is she?"

"Oh, erm, I've had her for about nine hundred years - ish, and she must have been a few hundred years old when I got her, so..."

"Let's just settle on old," Martha told him.

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After they'd eaten, they walked back through Cardiff, around the bay. It was a pleasant spring evening and as they walked they chatted, Martha reminding the Doctor that she needed to go home soon for her brother's birthday. By her calendar, the one on her phone that she kept set to the time and date her family lived in, his birthday was tomorrow. The Doctor promised to take her to London, but refused to go to her parent's house. Martha was teasing him about that, but the Doctor had stopped walking. He was staring at a man and a woman who'd just got out of a black Range Rover.

"Doctor?" Martha asked, but he ignored her. Instead he followed the couple at a distance, stopping to watch as they went down an alley and entered what looked like an old shop. He stood and stared at the building for a few seconds, before turning and walking back past the car - noting 'Torchwood' embossed on the side. He shook his head and muttered something that Martha didn't catch. "Let's go," he told her and walked off towards the TARDIS without waiting to see if she was following.

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When they returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor didn't seem too inclined to talk. He pulled an access panel open, climbed under the console and started making repairs. Martha's offers to help were all rejected, so she gave up and left him to it.

Under the console, the Doctor was brooding. He really had thought Jack was dead. Even as he was telling Rose that Jack was fine, was helping to rebuild Earth, he hadn't believed it, had just been trying to protect her - she was about to have enough to deal with watching him regenerate. But now it seemed he'd been wrong and he wasn't sure what to do about that.

When Martha returned an hour later, the Doctor was sitting on one of the chairs, feet on the railings, staring into space. She handed him a cup of tea and sat next to him. He managed a smile and a thanks, before he went back to staring at nothing.

"So who are they?" Martha asked.

"Who?"

"The couple we followed earlier."

"Oh, erm, I've never seen her before."

Martha waited for more and when it didn't come she prompted him. "And the man?"

"Someone I knew along time ago, different lifetime - literally a different lifetime. I thought he was dead."

"So... you don't look too pleased to see that he isn't, I take it he wasn't a friend."

"No, no he was a friend, a good friend in fact. He's a time traveller - a former time agent turned conman turned hero," the Doctor gave a fond smile that quickly changed back to a frown. "I could have sworn he was dead. In fact I'm a hundred percent positive he died. And yet here he is in Cardiff."

"If he's a time traveller, maybe it's him before he died?" Martha suggested.

"No, it's him now."

"How do you know?"

"I'm a Time Lord," the Doctor replied, and then remembered how much that answer annoyed Martha. "I can feel, sense... I just know," he sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "The question is, why didn't I know he'd been brought back to life?" He knew the answer to that though. Jack had died on the Game Station, the Doctor had felt it happen. But then Rose had returned, he'd absorbed the time vortex and died - his senses had been a little off for a few weeks after that. He had known something had changed, he'd sensed a ripple in time somewhere, but he couldn't work out where it was. Now he knew - it was Jack, alive when he shouldn't be. He also knew how it had happened - the vortex had been used in a way that it should never be used.

He made a decision. Swinging his feet off the rails, he jumped up and ran round the console. "What date's your brother's birthday?"

"18th of June 2008."

"Good. Then hold on, be there in a jiffy."

Martha looked worried. "And while I'm there, you're not going to do anything stupid are you?"

"Who me? Never!"

Part Two ...

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	2. Chapter 2

**Reunited **- by Sian

**Synopsis**: Jack learns what really happened to Rose  
**Characters**: The Doctor (ten), Jack, Ianto  
**Episode/Spoilers**: Doctor Who - 2 x13 Doomsday & some series 3 spoilers. Torchwood - 1x07 Greeks Bearing Gifts.  
**Rating**: PG (some mild swearing & violence)  
**Notes**: I've been writing Jack/Ten fics all summer (had to update this one after Torchwood started) - this is the first I've posted, there will be more.

* * *

**Part Two **

Some mornings (usually ones when the pterodactyl was being particularly noisy) Jack wondered why he didn't get an apartment, a flat, like the rest of his team. But his original intention had only been to stay in Cardiff long enough to find the Doctor. Jack knew that the rift would only continue to get stronger and that would draw the Doctor to Cardiff at some point - the Time Lord wouldn't be able to resist finding out for himself what was happening. So this job had been a means to an end - Jack hadn't bargained on discovering that he enjoyed his work and his colleagues.

He went over to the coffee machine and turned it on, before going for a shower. When he returned, dressed and slightly fresher, Ianto had arrived, made coffee and toast and was checking the scanners. "Morning. What time is it?"

"Just gone 6.30," Ianto replied. "You're still living here then?"

"Yep, and it's still our little secret," Jack replied. "Anything interesting?" he nodded to the monitor Ianto was studying.

"Passing UFO last night, didn't even slow down. Reports of mauled and missing sheep round Barry, again."

"Ah, more giant cats," Jack said with a grin. "We should probably train him not to do that."

"How do you train a pterodactyl not to kill sheep? Short of keeping in him at night of course?"

"And we're not doing that," Jack commented.

"Good," Ianto agreed, he had enough to do cleaning up after the four humans, without having to clean the mess a confined pterodactyl would make.

Jack picked up a slice of toast. "Well, if nothing else has happened, I'll go and check my email. You can bet the mad Scot will have sent me a stack of crap overnight."

Ianto smiled, the boss at Torchwood Glasgow did seem to like to annoy Jack. When he turned back to the monitor to continue checking the scanners, he frowned. "Hang on, Jack, there's an alien right outside."

"Here? Well that's cocky," Jack said. "CCTV?" Ianto panned the camera round, the street was deserted apart from one man. He zoomed the camera in on him. "Looks harmless enough," Jack commented. "I'll go and have a word."

"I know him," Ianto said. "I saw him at London, the day of the battle. That's the Doctor."

Jack spun back round and stared at the monitor again. He'd known the Doctor had regenerated, but the pictures from Torchwood London had been grainy and damaged, all he'd been able to tell was that it wasn't the Doctor he'd known. "I'm going to talk to him. If the others arrive, don't mention it to them."

Ianto continued to watch the monitor as Jack emerged from the building, went over to the Doctor and punched him. He turned the sound on their camera on and listened.

"Get up," Jack said.

"Why, so you can hit me again?"

"Oh I can hit you while you're down there. Get up."

The Doctor stood, but didn't defend himself when Jack punched him again. Ianto was considering going and stopping Jack from killing the other man, but he didn't need to, Jack turned and started to walk away.

"I didn't know you were alive," the Doctor told him.

Jack stopped walking and turned angrily back to the Doctor. "How could you not know? How the hell can you bring someone back to life and not realise you've done it. Is that some kind of sick Time Lord game? Bring me back and then abandon me."

"That wasn't me."

Ianto watched as Jack walked slowly back to the Doctor, turned and looked up at the camera. "Turn it off, Ianto," he ordered. "Now!" Ianto reluctantly did as he was told, just in time as it turned out, because Owen had arrived.

"More mauled sheep in Barry?" Owen asked. "Was on the radio."

"Yeah, I know. I'll put out the big cat sightings story again."

"People are going to stop believing that? Jack not in?"

"Just gone out, said he wouldn't be long."

Jack turned back to the Doctor. "Go on then."

"I didn't come here to justify myself to you."

"Then why did you come?"

"To tell you about Rose."

Jack chewed his lip and looked away. "I read the casualty reports from Torchwood London. I know she died."

"She didn't die."

"The report says..."

"I know what the report says, I made the entry."

Jack's anger flared again. "Why the hell would you do that? What about her friends, her family? Why would you make us think she was dead?"

The Doctor rubbed the back of neck and took a deep breath. He still wasn't comfortable talking about Rose, even to Jack, but Jack cared for Rose and he deserved to know the truth. So the Doctor told him what had happened that afternoon in London. How he'd tried to send Rose to safety, but she'd come back, had insisted on helping him. How, for one stupid moment, he'd actually believed that they were going to survive, that she'd been right when she'd said that nothing could tear them apart. But then she'd let go and he'd watched in horror as she was pulled towards the void. He'd been about to let go himself, to follow her, but Pete had appeared and taken her to safety in his world - a parallel Earth, an Earth the Doctor could never visit.

"God," was all Jack could think to say. He leaned back against the wall, tilted his head backwards and closed his eyes. After a few seconds he opened them again and turned to look at the Doctor. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," the Doctor replied. "I've got to go."

"You can't just show up and then vanish again."

"Yes I can," the Doctor told him.

"So that's it, you tell me about Rose and just leave. No explanation for anything else, not even a 'how are you, Jack? How'd you get back here, what are you doing with yourself now?'."

"Oh I know what you're doing, you're working for Torchwood."

"Yes I am."

"Then we have nothing else to talk about."

"You really are an arrogant... You know what, forget it." Jack turned and went back into the building, leaving the Doctor standing in the street.

Part Three ...

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**Reunited **by Sian

**Synopsis**: Neither Jack nor the Doctor are happy about how they left things  
**Characters**: The Doctor (ten), Jack, Ianto  
**Episode/Spoilers**: Doctor Who - 2 x13 Doomsday & some series 3 spoilers. Torchwood - 1x07 Greeks Bearing Gifts.  
**Rating**: PG   
**Notes**: I've been writing Jack/Ten fics all summer (had to update this one after Torchwood started) - this is the first I've posted, there will be more.

* * *

**Part Three **

The Doctor slammed the TARDIS door shut, threw his coat over a support strut and went over to the console. He set the coordinates, turned everything on and then stood staring at the green light of the time rotor. He couldn't leave, not like this. Yes, he was angry that Jack would work for Torchwood, and he was uncomfortable with Jack's resurrection - even though he knew that wasn't Jack's choice or fault, it still rankled. He couldn't just abandon him though; Jack had been a good friend and had died because of him. And, if Jack had been brought back they way the Doctor thought, then he was fairly certain there would be consequences. He shut everything back down and left the console room, heading to the kitchen for a strong cup of tea.

He couldn't just go and find Jack now, well he could, but he didn't want to. They both needed time to cool down before the faced each other again.

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Jack had been shut in his office since he'd returned to the hub an hour earlier. When Owen had tried to ask him about some tests they'd been running, he'd got his head bitten off and since then no one had dared disturb Jack. When a call came in, they nominated Ianto to tell him. But he seemed to have calmed down; at least he didn't threaten Ianto with violence. He did tell him that he was sure Gwen, Tosh and Owen could handle the call.

Once the others had gone, Jack started scanning for the Doctor. He knew their scanners couldn't pick up the TARDIS but they could detect the Doctor. He went back through the morning's records and found the Time Lord outside their building. He'd hoped it was just a case of tracking him as he walked back to the TARDIS, of course it couldn't be that simple, there were dead spots in the scanners and he lost the trail after a mile.

When Ianto came down from the front office, he called him over. "I want you to keep checking for the Doctor, on the scanners and the CCTV. You find him you let me know, no one else. You got that?"

Ianto nodded. "We got readings earlier, I should be able to set up a program to look out for him. Tosh could do it better than me though."

"No!" It was bad enough that Ianto knew about the Doctor's arrival in Cardiff, without the rest of the team being involved.

"I'll do it then." Ianto started typing, writing some code to scan for the Doctor's bio signs. "How do you know him?" he asked.

"What makes you think I know him? He's mentioned in Torchwood's charter, he's the reason we were founded."

"Yeah I know. But... before, outside... you looked like you knew him, sounded like that." Ianto glanced nervously at Jack, knowing he was crossing the line.

"Just set up the program. I want to know the next time he appears in Cardiff."

"It's done," Ianto said. "I've set it to send the alert to you rather than the system. Are the bosses hunting for him then?" he asked, continuing before he lost his nerve, "Because they shouldn't. I'm pretty sure he saved us at London, that's what I heard anyway."

"The top brass seem happy to leave him alone. No one's looking for him but me. It has nothing to do with London. No one else is to know about this, okay?"

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Jack was just about to go to bed that night, when an alarm on his wrist band sounded. He climbed back up into his office and turned the monitor on - he'd taken onboard Ianto's continued warnings about the light from monitors upsetting the pterodactyl. He watched the scanners, there was no CCTV in that area, but the Doctor appeared to be standing still. He put on his coat and left the building.

Fifteen minutes later, he arrived at a recreation ground. He took a torch and walked past the swings and slide, across the football pitch and towards the changing rooms, following the tracker he was carrying. When he walked around the back of the changing rooms, he saw the faint lights from the windows on the TARDIS. As he shone his torch around, the beam landed on the Doctor, standing leaning against his ship.

"Thought I'd have to wait here all night," the Doctor commented. "You want to come in?" he offered and opened the TARDIS door. "Of course, I'm guessing you still have your own key, pity your scanners can't pick her up or you could have been here much earlier."

"How do you know the scanners... never mind." Jack followed the Doctor inside the ship. "You not worried I'll hit you again?"

"No. But then common sense has never been one of my strong points. Close the door, don't want to let any stray cats in."

Jack closed the door and followed the Doctor across the room. When he reached the console he found himself stroking it affectionately, before he caught himself and smiled self-consciously. He turned to face the Doctor. "I'm sorry I hit you."

"Really?"

"Well, maybe not the first punch," Jack admitted. He stood looking around; it was like he'd never left, like the last six years of his life hadn't happened. But they had and he wanted answers. "Do you have any alcohol?"

"Of course, in the study. You know the way." The Doctor stood back and let Jack go first.

Part Four ...

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

**Reunited **by Sian

**Synopsis**: When Jack and the Doctor finally talk, Jack gets an answer to his problem  
**Characters**: The Doctor (ten), Jack  
**Episode/Spoilers**: Doctor Who - 2 x13 Doomsday & some series 3 spoilers. Torchwood - 1x07 Greeks Bearing Gifts.  
**Rating**: PG  
**Notes**: I've been writing Jack/Ten fics all summer (had to update this one after Torchwood started) - this is the first I've posted, there will be more.

* * *

**Part Four **

Jack sat in one armchair and the Doctor in another, the coffee table between them held a bottle of whiskey from another galaxy and two glasses, which the Doctor filled before handing one to Jack. Jack took a long drink, and then asked, "If you didn't bring me back, then who did?"

"Rose."

"You sent Rose home."

"Yes, yes I did," the Doctor agreed with a sad smile. "But she came back. She opened the TARDIS heart and used the time vortex to take her back to the Game Station. Then she used it to kill the Daleks and I'm guessing to bring you back."

Jack gave a small laugh. "Rose did that. God. And you didn't know what she'd done?"

"I knew she'd killed the Daleks, I watched her do it, but no I didn't know about you. I was dying, I'm amazed I managed to fly the TARDIS, I had no idea what was going on in the universe at the point. I just concentrated on getting off the Game Station and back to safety before my regeneration started. Rose didn't know what she'd done. She asked about you, I told her you were helping rebuild Earth, that you were fine. She didn't believe me as it turned out. A few weeks later, she made me take her to your home in the 51st century so she could say goodbye." The Doctor didn't know whether that would help Jack or make things worse, but it was the truth.

Jack nodded and stared down at his now empty glass. "At least you thought about me," he said.

The Doctor frowned, he was shocked that Jack would think they'd just forget him. "Of course we thought about you, we missed you," the Doctor replied. "I still miss you," he added. Jack was the only Human he'd met who understood his life, who he didn't have to explain himself to.

Jack gave a small smile. "You know, in spite of wanting to beat the crap of you for abandoning me, I missed you as well. It's strange how good it feels to be able to be myself around someone for a change." He sighed and leaned back in the chair. He'd been so sure that only the Doctor could have brought him back, he'd never considered any other explanation. He was surprised at how relieved he felt to hear that the Doctor hadn't deliberately left him, and he was actually touched to hear that both Rose and the Doctor had mourned him. There was one more thing though. "If Rose used the time vortex to bring me back, would that have any lasting effects?"

"Like?"

"Not being able to die, or age for that matter."

The Doctor nodded. "That's one of the reasons the Time Lords forbade using the time vortex to control life or death. It has consequences that go far beyond someone being alive who shouldn't be."

Jack wondered whether the Doctor included himself in that view, but decided he'd rather not know.

"But you can die," the Doctor added. After he'd seen Jack earlier, he'd been fairly sure how Jack had come back to life. So he'd trawled through the archives in the TARDIS database, searching to see whether his theory was correct. "The vortex brought you back to life and it's now keeping you alive. But every time you die and it brings you back, and every time you use it to help someone else," the Doctor gave Jack a knowing look, "you use up some of the energy. Eventually it will run out and then you will die."

"I don't know whether that makes me feel better or not," Jack admitted. "Am I actually alive?" he asked.

"You're sitting there, drinking my whiskey and talking - usually signs that someone's alive."

"But not always," Jack added.

"No," the Doctor agreed. "Do you breathe? Bleed? Does it hurt when you stub your toe in a door?" When Jack nodded, the Doctor grinned, "Then you're alive."

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They talked for another half an hour or so, until Jack's mobile rang - an automated call alerting him to an alien attack in a Cardiff hotel. "I have to go," he told the Doctor. "Will you be in Cardiff again?"

The Doctor had been planning visiting Cardiff occasionally to check on the rift - which was a relic of the time war and therefore indirectly his responsibility. But then he'd discovered that Torchwood had a base in the city and he'd decided that he'd be giving Cardiff a wide berth. Now of course, here was Jack, the head of Torchwood Cardiff but still his friend. He was reluctant to put himself any closer to Torchwood than he had to though. "Possibly."

"Worried about Torchwood?"

"Can you blame me?"

"They've changed."

"Is their motto still 'If it's alien, it's ours'?"

"Yeah."

"Then they haven't changed that much and this alien would rather steer clear."

Jack understood the Doctor's mistrust of Torchwood. "I can put a block on the scanners so they don't pick you up. And as long as you park here, no one will see you," he offered.

"We'll see. I'll phone you when I'm in this time again."

If that was the best the Doctor could offer, then Jack accepted it for now. "I really have to go."

The Doctor walked Jack back through the ship and to the console room. "She recognises you," he told him.

"She always did like me," Jack smiled. "Hey, if I have the vortex in me - does that mean I can fly her now?"

"No, you have to actually be a Time Lord for that."

"Shame."

"Oh yeah, terrible shame," the Doctor laughed. "I will be back here soon. I'll phone you."

END OF THIS CHAPTER

More Jack/Ten to come soon

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End file.
